Fabrication of Manila Hemp Fiber Reinforced Cross Ply Biodegradable Composites and Their Tensile Properties
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Open Journal of Composite Materials, 2018, 8, 75-83 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojcm ISSN Online: 2164-5655 ISSN Print: 2164-5612 Fabrication of Manila Hemp Fiber Reinforced Cross Ply Biodegradable Composites and Their Tensile Properties Shinji Ochi Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Niihama College, Ehime, Japan How to cite this paper: Ochi, S. (2018) Abstract Fabrication of Manila Hemp Fiber Rein- forced Cross Ply Biodegradable Composites Natural plant fibers, including flax, kenaf, jute, bamboo, ramie and much and Their Tensile Properties. Open Journal more are renewable and sustainable resources and are considered good can- of Composite Materials, 8, 75-83. didates for cost-effective alternatives to glass and carbon fibers. In this re- https://doi.org/10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 search, cross ply biodegradable composites were fabricated by press-forming Received: April 8, 2018 method. The biodegradable composites consist of Manila hemp textile as a Accepted: June 30, 2018 reinforcement and starch-based biodegradable plastics as a matrix was fabri- Published: July 3, 2018 cated and investigated about mechanical properties. The tensile strength in- creased with the fiber content until fiber content of about 50% and leveled off Copyright © 2018 by author and thereafter. This dependence on the fiber content is due to the decrease in fiber Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative strength of loading direction caused by fiber damages introduced during Commons Attribution International hot-pressing. In order to decrease the damage of fibers aligned in loading di- License (CC BY 4.0). rection, Manila hemp textile was produced by using Manila hemp fibers for http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ warp and biodegradable resin thread for weft. As a result, the tensile strength Open Access of cross ply composites increased from 153 MPa to 202 MPa. Keywords Natural Fiber, Biodegradable Plastics, Manila Hemp, Biocomposites and Mechanical Properties 1. Introduction These past few years have witnessed the speedy development of scientific tech- niques and an addition in the standard of living of human. However, these devel- opments have their disadvantages. Fossil fuels were running out and there is insuf- ficient space for our garbage. In order to reduce the environmental load generated from the disposal of used plastic products, significant attention has been placed on biodegradable resin. This resin can be completely resolved into water and carbon DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 Jul. 3, 2018 75 Open Journal of Composite Materials S. Ochi dioxide by the action of the microorganism, when it is disposed of in the soil. Moreover, there are no emissions of toxic gases during incineration. The applica- tion of biodegradable resin has been restricted due to their relatively lower strength compared to conventional plastics such as POM (polyacetal) and nylon. Resent years, because of their extensive use in many diverse fields, plastics, in- cluding FRP (fiber reinforced plastics) products have become indispensable to our life. However, the primary raw material used in plastic production is petroleum and there are strong social and economic pressures to conserve petroleum re- sources. Furthermore, because FRP wastes are non-flammable, they must be dis- posed of in landfills after use, and this contributes to high environmental loads. The use of natural plant fibers as a reinforcement in FRP to replace synthetic fi- bers such as glass and carbon fibers is presently receiving attention because of advantages such as renewable resources, low density and high specific strength. Furthermore, in recent years, development of biodegradable composites using natural plant fibers such as flax [1] [2], bamboo [3] [4], pineapple [5], silk [6], jute [7], kenaf [8] and ramie [9] [10] as a reinforcement and biodegradable resin as a matrix is conducted actively. And researches on molding condition, me- chanical properties and interfacial bonding have been carried out. In former paper [11], the research about development of high strength unidi- rectional Manila hemp fiber reinforced biodegradable composites was reported. The unidirectional biodegradable composites were made from Manila hemp fi- ber bundles and a starch-based emulsion-type biodegradable resin. The tensile and flexural strengths of the composites increased with increasing fiber content up to 70%. The composites possessed extremely high tensile strengths of 365 MPa. The aim of this study is to develop cross ply biodegradable composites to expand the range of applications of the biodegradable composites. Manila hemp textile was used as the reinforcement for cross ply biodegradable composites and investigated about their mechanical properties. 2. Experimental Procedures 2.1. Materials As a matrix, emulsion-type biodegradable polymer (Miyoshi Oil & Fat Co., LTD.,CP-300) was used. Plastic particles of approximately 5 μm in diameter are suspended in water-based solution with a mass content of about 40%. The prop- erties of this biodegradable plastics are shown in Table 1. And biodegradable re- sin thread (Miyoshi Oil & Fat Co., LTD., CPR-LF) as a weft for Manila hemp textile were used. This resin thread has same properties as matrix resin. Manila hemp fibers were provided by Fujiseishi Co., LTD in Japan. The dimensions of Manila hemp fibers are shown in Table 2. In this research, fiber bundles which have a diameter of about 200 μm were used. In addition, the surface treatment of fibers was not carried out. 2.2. Preliminary Molded Manila Hemp Textile Firstly, Manila hemp textiles of 100mm square were produced using Manila DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 76 Open Journal of Composite Materials S. Ochi hemp fibers with textile machine. Next, emulsion-type biodegradable polymer was put on the surface of Manila hemp fibers. The preliminary molded sheets were produced by drying at 105˚C for 120 min in an oven. The photograph of Manila hemp textile produced is shown in Figure 1. 2.3. Laminating Method As shown in Figure 2, cross ply composites were produced by laminating 0˚ply sheets and 90˚ply sheets alternately. 0˚ply laminates and 90˚ply laminates com- posites were also produced in the same manner. 2.4. Molding Method Specimens were produced by the hot-pressing with a metallic mold and a press machine. Firstly, laminated preliminary molded sheets were put into the metallic mold, and then they were heated to 130˚C with the flexible heater rolled around the metallic mold. Next it held at 130˚C for 5 min, and specimens were pro- duced by pressing at 10 MPa for 10 min. Table 1. Properties of biodegradable resin used as matrix. Density (g/cm3) 1.18 Melting point (˚C) 58 Water absorption (%) 2 Tensile strength (MPa) 11.7 Young’s modulus (MPa) 415 Table 2. Dimensions of used manila hemp fibers. Fiber bundle Single fiber Length (m) Diameter (mm) Length (mm) Diameter (μm) 2 - 3 0.1 - 0.3 2 - 12 10 - 50 Figure 1. Aspect photograph of manila hemp textile. DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 77 Open Journal of Composite Materials S. Ochi Figure 2. Schematic illustration of laminates. 2.5. Mechanical Testing Tensile test was carried out by using 5567 type Instron testing machine. The width, thickness and length of the tensile specimen are 10 mm, 0.8 - 1.5 mm and 100 mm, respectively. Tensile test was performed at a strain rate of 0.03 per min and the gauge length of 30 mm. Figure 3 shows shape and dimensions of tensile specimen. 3. Results and Discussions 3.1. Microstructure of Cross Ply Biodegradable Composites The top view and transverse section of fabricated cross ply biodegradable com- posites is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5, respectively. From these figures, Ma- nila hemp fibers distributed straight in bi-directions. From these figures, it can be observed that the distribution of fibers is parallel, and that there are no voids or fiber contacts that would cause a decrease in strength. To use an emul- sion-type biodegradable resin, provides a suitable internal environment for achieving high fiber volume such as 60%. And the density of the cross ply bio- degradable composites indicates 1.09 g/cm3. 3.2. Tensile Properties of Cross Ply Biodegradable Composites Figure 6 shows the relationship between tensile strength of cross ply composites and fiber content. Figure 6 shows relationship between tensile strength and fiber content. Symbols of △ , ○, ▽ and □ indicate tensile strength of 0˚ply laminates, cross ply laminates, 90˚ply laminates and biodegradable resin. From this figure, tensile strength reached 153 MPa at 50% of fibers, but remain constant thereaf- ter. The model of cross ply laminates is shown in Figure 7. The stress of parallel to loading direction and stress of parallel to vertical direction are expressed as σp and σv, respectively. When applied stress is greater than σp, cross ply laminates will fracture. This fracture stress is given by Equation (1) [12]. Symbols of a and b indicate the thickness of 0˚ply and 90˚ply. σσ=p ⋅ aab( + ) (1) Since the cross ply was laminated as a = b in this research, fracture stress is given by Equation (2). σσσ= ( pv+ ) 2 (2) DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 78 Open Journal of Composite Materials S. Ochi Figure 3. Shape and dimensions of tensile specimen. Figure 4. Top view of cross ply biodegradable composites. Figure 5. Optical micrograph of transverse section of cross ply biodegradable composites with 60% of fibers. 500 0o ply C r oss pl y 400 o (MPa) 90 ply σ R esi n 300 200 100 Tensile strength strength Tensile 0 0 20 40 60 80 10 Volume fraction of M anila hemp fiber (% ) Figure 6. Relationship between tensile strength and volume fraction of Manila hemp fiber of biodegradable composites. DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2018.83007 79 Open Journal of Composite Materials S.